Why do so many AI strategies fall apart the moment they meet a real team?

In this episode of Evolving Workforce, Dave sits down with Dirk J Primus, Associate Professor at UNSW's Australian Graduate School of Management, where he researches strategy, innovation and technology adoption. Dirk spends his time inside organisations watching where AI strategy actually breaks down, and most of what he sees comes straight from senior leaders in his MBA classes.

This conversation covers a lot of ground: why AI adoption looks nothing alike from one team to the next inside the same organisation, the rise of "AI theatre" (where AI gets talked about a lot more than it gets used properly), and Dirk's cake analogy for how organisations are layered and why that matters for anyone rolling out AI across silos.

Dirk also plays two quick rounds with Dave: Humans vs AI, on what leaders should never hand over to a machine, and Change Your Mind, on what he's rethought recently about preparing a workforce for AI.

The line that sums up the whole episode: protect your brain. AI can do the grunt work. The higher order thinking still has to be yours.

Chapters

00:00 – Introduction to Dirk J Primus and today's topic
01:00 – What's actually changing as organisations adopt AI
03:00 – Which industries are more resistant to AI adoption
04:00 – Medicine as an example of confident, low-resistance adoption
06:00 – The cake analogy: layers, silos and organisational architecture
10:00 – Why organisations are still siloed on different AI tools
11:00 – Why most AI strategies fail once they hit real teams
12:30 – AI theatre, and the gold rush of shortcut-sellers
17:00 – Dirk's background and courses at UNSW AGSM
19:00 – Game: Humans vs AI, what leaders should never outsource
22:30 – Game: Change Your Mind, what Dirk has rethought recently
25:00 – Manipulation, AI companionship, and where the ethical line sits
29:30 – The environmental cost of AI, data centres and responsible use
32:30 – Prediction: the "Apple route" vs the prompt-everything route
36:00 – Warning: fear-mongering, shortcuts and protecting your brain
38:00 – Closing thoughts and what's next

Links

Connect with Dirk J Primus: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirk-j-primus-b79a6710/

Connect with Evolving Workforce host Dave Kenyon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davekenyon5/

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033OH8uj9vTjmlkscl692l?si=a6a9050ff4964b5b

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EvolvingWorkforce

More on OAHI: https://www.oahi.io/

Evolving Workforce is brought to you by OAHI, the workforce management platform helping organisations across Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific get rostering, time and attendance, and payroll compliance right, without the manual guesswork. If award interpretation, BOOT compliance or shift scheduling is still eating up your week, learn more at https://www.oahi.io/

Adam Cogan, founder of SSW and one of Australia's most recognised voices in applied AI, joins Evolving Workforce to unpack how AI is changing not just how work gets done, but who makes the decisions inside organisations.

Adam shares why he thinks every company needs a "VP of AI" (or Chief AI Officer), how SSW uses Claude Skills and Claude Code to eliminate repetitive work, what "AI slop" actually is and how to avoid producing it, and the wild story of "OpenClaw", an AI agent, given full access to someone's computer. He also breaks down AGI in plain terms and shares a real example of a business owner who used Claude to build an entire caravan-hire business. Website, marketing campaign in minutes.

This is a practical, no-hype conversation for business leaders trying to work out where AI is genuinely adding value in their workforce, and where it's just noise.

00:00 Introduction: Adam Cogan, founder of SSW
01:00 From writing code to running AI-powered software teams
02:30 Where AI is genuinely adding value vs. where it's just hype
05:00 Real example: fixing a spreadsheet with a single Claude prompt
06:00 What are Claude Skills and Claude Code, explained simply
09:00 What "AI slop" is and how to avoid sending it
11:30 How AI is changing who makes decisions in a business
13:00 The OpenClaw story: an AI agent with full computer access
18:00 How SSW trains every employee to use AI from day one
20:00 Why every company needs a VP of AI (or Chief AI Officer)
21:30 Game: Humans vs AI: Where humans still matter most
23:00 Game: Change Your Mind: Anthropic's Mythos and Fable models
26:00 What AGI actually means, and are we close?
28:30 Game: Prediction: AI building a business in 10 minutes
32:00 Game: The Warning: What leaders need to watch for
34:00 Final thought: is AI doing the right work, not just doing work right

Evolving Workforce is a podcast from OAHI, exploring how AI and technology are reshaping how organisations lead, manage, and pay their people. Real conversations with the strategists, technologists, and workforce leaders on the front line of this shift.

🔗 Listen and subscribe: [podcast link]
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🔗 OAHI: https://www.oahi.io
🔗 Adam Cogan / SSW:https://www.ssw.com.au/

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